Binational insurance a new frontier in health coverage

San Diego Country Club sous chef Miguel Mijia spent a week in a Chula Vista, Calif., hospital a year ago after suffering a heart attack. Then he spent another week in a Tijuana, Mexico, hospital where he underwent triple-bypass surgery after a second heart attack. His employer-sponsored health insurance plan covered bills from both hospitals despite an international border separating the locations.

Mijia, who works in Chula Vista and lives in Tijuana, is among a growing number of Latino workers in Southern California whose health plans give them and their families access to networks of hospitals and doctors on both sides of the border.

With health insurance reform efforts taking center stage in Sacramento, Calif., this year, cross-border policies such as the one used by Mijia offer an enticing path for covering more workers from Mexico and other Latin American countries. They account for 57 percent of the state’s 6.7 million uninsured, according to figures from the California HealthCare Foundation. “*

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